A Corpus-Based Study On The Lexical Features Of The Amendment To STCW2010 Convention

STCW is one of the most important conventions of International Maritime Organization (IMO). With the development of shipping industry, the improvement of shipping technology, and the internationalization of crew allocation, countries all around the world lay more and more emphasis on the issues of sea safety and marine environment. Several disastrous sea accidents had happened in the world in a short period. Based on the statistical analysis of the accidents, it is concluded that 80% of those accidents can be attributed to the faults of man. Therefore, IMO make periodical amendments to STCW as well as the other conventions. IMO completed the latest amendment in March,2010.STCW is a legal convention. For maritime English learners, vocabulary is undoubtedly the biggest obstacle of input and output in order to have a good understanding of documents concerning maritime English and to have the ability to communicate and exchange information in the field of maritime affairs. Based on a self-built 100,000 corpus of STCW amendment, the study is carried out on the lexical features of STCW convention. With the assistance of computer, the study draws a conclusion on the lexical features of STCW Convention and concludes that the STCW Corpus Uses different devices to realize the lexical collocation and adopts Archaisms, French and Latin Loan Lexicons, common lexicons with uncommon meanings, frequent use of formal lexicons and long lexicons to realize its distinctive lexical features.Based on the previous study, the thesis draws conclusions, discusses the significance and presents some limitations in hope that it can provide references to people who may use the amendment to convention on different occasions and for different purposes.